Two modes of clearing rice from the shell are in use; the one performed by the very simple process of scalding, which occasions the rice to swell, and to burst the shell, so that the latter is removed with very little trouble; the other is, by putting the _d’haun_ into an immense wooden mortar, called an _ookly_, and beating it by the application of two or more beetles, called _moosuls_, of about four feet in length, by three inches in diameter, shod at the bottom with iron ferules, and thinned towards their centres, so as to be grasped by the women; each alternately impelling one, in nearly a perpendicular direction, among the _d’haun_ in the _ookly_. After the shells have been duly separated, the rice, now called _choul_, is separated, by winnowing either in a strong draught of air, or by means of a kind of scoop, made of fine wicker-work, called a _soop_, wherewith the native women can most dexterously separate different kinds of corn, and effectually remove all rubbish. The coat of rice is peculiarly harsh, and not much relished by cattle: I have seen it mixed with dung for fuel with excellent effect.
The natives, in general, make little distinction between the rice separated by scalding, which is called _oosnah_, and that dressed by the _ookly_, which is called _urwah_; but some of the more fastidious prefer one or the other, according to particular prejudices handed down in their families, or supposed to appertain to their respective sects. I think the scalded rice generally deficient in flavor; the grains are larger, and less compact; the beaten rice certainly boils with rather more difficulty, but appears whiter, and drier. The scalded rice does not immediately separate from the coat, but is usually submitted to the operation of a machine composed of a stout beam, nearly equipoised by means of a thorough-pin, on a fork, of wood also, fixed in the ground.
It is inconceivable what quantities of rice, of a coarse reddish cast, but peculiarly sweet, and large grained, are prepared, about Backergunge, near the debouchure of the Megna, for exportation. In that quarter fuel is cheap, and water conveyance every where at hand; so that the immense crops raised in the inundated districts find a ready sale. The average return from a _bigah_ of 1600 square yards, of three _bigahs_ to our statute acre, sown with about twenty-five seers of _d’haun_, may be taken at nine maunds. The price of the grain, when cleared of its coat, may be from thirty to forty seers of fine rice, and from sixty even to _a hundred and twenty seers_ (_i.e._ three maunds) of coarse, commonly called ‘cargo-rice.’ But the demand always regulates the value; especially when great consignments are forwarded to the coast of Coromandel.